Pre-1900s
An Uncertain Future
Population
Wild: ### Captive: ###
Whooping cranes, Grus americana, first arrived on the scene in North America roughly 3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch as descendants of a group of cranes including the eurasian, hooded, and black-necked cranes that arose in Asia.
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Although whooping cranes were never a common species, recent genomic studies have found that they likely exceeded 10,000 across North America about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Whooping cranes primarily nested in the Upper Midwest. Some populations of whooping cranes migrated long distances to nesting grounds while others were non-migratory, spending the entire year in one area.
The significance of whooping cranes to indigenous people was revealed through an archeological discovery, along the upper Texas Coast at Mitchell Ridge. Bone whistles, crafted from whooping crane wing bones and adorned with intricate carvings, were found in graves dating back to 1200 CE. These whistles were buried with prominent members of the Atakapa-speaking groups, like the Akokisa aboriginal peoples, highlighting their cultural significance.
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
As European settlers pushed west in the 1800s, the large, white whooping cranes were prime targets in an era of unregulated hunting for trade, sustenance, museum collections, and trophies. Their decline was compounded by habitat loss through the destruction and drainage of wetlands.
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Marketing hunting in the late 1800s left wildlife populations across North America in peril as their hides and meat were harvested as products on a commercial scale. In its wake, a growing conservation movement was also beginning to take shape, offering a glimmer of hope in an uncertain time for the continent’s wildlife.
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
1895 Atrist Rendering of Landscape of the Pliocene epoch showing environment at the time of men’s appearance drawn by Riou: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
“While on our journey several Otoes hurried up, to tell us that about a dozen white cranes were standing upon a sandbar in the Platte…one of the birds, that was standing with its head closely snugged up against its breast, and gazing in moralizing mood upon the swift water, suddenly shot out a neck three feet long, and turned a quick and steady eye…He gazed a moment, then taking a step, and slowly raising his wings until their tips nearly met over his back, rose from the earth,..uttering a shrill cry which brought his startled comrades after him…Slowly they mounted in the air, floating like snowflakes over the river…”
– John Treat Irving, 1888, from Indian Sketches: Taken during a U.S. expedition to make treaties with the Pawnee and other tribes of American Indians, Pg. 236